It worked in my favour this time!!
By Mutryce A. Williams BBA CTM
Caribbean Time, eh, I shook my head and thought to myself. We Caribbean people are notorious the world over for our treatment of time. I never thought that there would be a day that it would work in my favour.
As a Caribbean people we are notorious the world over for our relationship with TIME, so much so that this relationship has been labeled Caribbean Time. If we actually show up early for an event, a friend would swear that our temperature needs checking. He or she is convinced that we gone off or something definitely wrong with us. He or she swears that the clock was set an hour too fast. After all man, there must be some plausible explanation for this phenomenon. Throughout the event other friends would tease and this is the talk. In our society it is actually unheard of to arrive 10 or 15 minutes before an event starts; UNLESS, well unless, it is a queen show; even though we convinced that it is going start late we get there early anyway, for the good seats of course. If you arrive just as it is about to start that is better than good enough. You actually deserve a trophy.
It is the consensus that Caribbean people have no respect for time and that we operate according to our own clocks. The world must wait on us. Some of us, we begging a lift you know, and the person who stops to give us a ride, must wait while we saunter up the road. There is no concern for that persons time. It doesnt dawn on us that that person might have an important appointment. There are times that we may ask someone for a favour, for example we ask someone to plait/braid our hair, the person agrees and gives us a time. Come at 5:00 p.m. she says. We show up at 7:00 p.m. with a grin on our face, lashing that person playfully. We remark, Well, aint as if you had anywhere to go or you had something else to do, you just home sitting down. Lack of respect for ones time is my biggest pet peeve. It is our culture we argue. Really, is it? It is something that is hard to cut out. Really, is it? I have often wondered where, how, from whence our treatment of time has emerged and why does it persist?
In the Caribbean, we are supposed to report to work for 8:00 a.m. but to some of us that means marching in the door, 8:20 a.m. and actually settling down in the next half an hour. Church is scheduled to start at 9:00 a.m. yet we saunter in right before the Parson begin his sermon, after all man that is the most important part of the service and as long as everyone NOTICE me, mission accomplished. We are invited to meetings; the chairperson said 5:00 p.m. sharp, after all man, I have several other things to do before I grace those people with my presence, so I stroll in at 5:45 p.m. and make as much noise as possible before I actually settle down and the nerve of Jane to watch me bad, when I decide that the meeting should stop so that I could catch up on what I miss. This behaviour, we take with us wherever we go, and even though some of us may argue and say that it is not stereotypical of Caribbean people most of us have yet to prove this myth or stereotype wrong. When we invite people of other cultures to an event and they ask, just to make sure, Sonny, what time the party starting? Sonnys response with as much teeth and gum showing usually is, Man dont fret up you self, is Caribbean time.
Caribbean Time is a regional pandemic. It has gotten way out of hand. Last weekend, my best friend and I went to a Calypso show. The show was scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. We arrived at the venue at 7:43 p.m. sharp because we know that nothing in CSO, that is the Caribbean Student Organization at Midwestern State University ever starts on time. The organizers were still setting up and calypsonians were missing in action. The calypso show got off to a rocky start at around 9:00 pm. This is a perfect example of Caribbean Time we agreed. The performances were good. After the show the MC announced that the After Party would be at 12:00 a.m.
My best friend and I thought that we were showing up fashionably late when we arrived at 2:00 a.m. to greet a sparse dance floor and one or two people glued to the wall like flies. Shockingly however the music was pumping. What a thing and the few people werent even shaking a leg. I turned to the DJ and asked, Eh Joel wha going on here, man? His response, Girl things change, you know this Caribbean Time thing, the new party time is from 3:00 a.m. or so, you early! I watch he as if he was a stark raving mad man. In my day, the parties started swinging at around 1:30 p.m. But is how we Caribbean people get so? I thought. How? How? How?
My best friend suggested that we go back to the apartment and take a little nap then come back after 3:00 a.m. Who and she? I thought. I turned away from her hit the dance floor and when I say hit the dance floor, I mean hit the dance floor. I saw her shake her head and thought I heard her say something like, Boy she crazy you know! My partying began at about 2:10 a.m. and what a grand time I had. The shoes came off. I contemplated the earrings but I was afraid that I wouldnt be able to find them when I done, how was I going to talk my way out of that one? They stayed in.
The dance floor, but for two or so people at the time who had joined in, was mine. My best friend decided to let loose and joined in. There was as much room for trashing back and even though Footsteps has been out for while that night it seemed as if, it was the first time we had heard it because we were on the ground, on the ground, on the ground . We went up north, up north, down south, down south. We had a flag party. We jumped around and waved. We were singing along and who tell Joel play Elephant Man, cause we were signaling the plane.
We called the shots. It was DJ wheel and come again. Pull up selector. We had a train. When he played hip-hop, we had our Soul Train party line. The party was about nine of us, what a time we had. People were opening the door and closing it, saying, oh only a few people on the dance floor, the party aint start good yet. They congregated outside while time was passing them by. The only time that Caribbean Time worked in my favour was then. My best friend and I laughed as we staggered back to her apartment, drunk with happenings of the morning, shirts soaking wet and glued to our chests, shoes in hand and the music vibrating in our heads.
She said Girl, you aint even realize, how we avoided all those fellas who came up to us in the calypso show playing all suave and everything bout, they securing dance. She said with a cackle, You realized that there were no stopping and saying please move from behind me, there was no cooping the space closest to the AC unit, there was no rubbing up or bumping into other people, plus girl I got to try out some of my new moves them, cause we had ample space. We high- fived on that one! We bickered about who stopped the most, then went on about how we enjoyed the morning. One young man declared, as we were sauntering away from the party, Eh, the party aint start until I reach, I just going and you all leaving, aint no way you all could have had a good time, come back, come back. We looked at him and shot back in unison, As If
Caribbean Time, eh, I shook my head and thought to myself. We Caribbean people are notorious the world over for our treatment of time. I never thought that there would be a day that it would work in my favour. On a more serious note, as a people we must be more considerate of time and our time management skills. It is not a good reflection on us as a people. Time conscious people are productive people. We need to do away with this Caribbean Time thing, ok leave it for social events, so I could have a good time.
